The future of nuke power: Greenpeace restarts the debate

The debate on the future nuclear power is back on in earnest in France, and many other countries. That’s thanks to our activists paying surprise visits to two French nuclear power plants this week. The news that they could so easily get through the security around the nuclear plants has taken off, rekindling the debate about the safety of nuclear power right across the world. News of the embarrassment of the French nuclear industry over its weak security system has reached Russia, Japan, Brazil, China and many points in between. Is the nuclear industry and media finally waking up to how vulnerable nuclear reactors are? We hope so.

In an attempt to deflect criticism from his beloved nuclear industry, France’s President Sarkozy called our action “rather irresponsible”. Mr Sarkozy – we would say that security at nuclear reactors that is so weak that people walk in and out as they please is a great deal more irresponsible.

Dominique Miniere, the head of French nuclear reactors for the plant’s owner EDF, tried very hard to put a positive spin on things by saying the Greenpeace teams at the Cruas and Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear plants were caught by security “much faster this time than in the past”. That might be true but our people still managed to evade security at Nogent-sur-Seine for four hours and for a much longer 14 hours at Cruas. If that’s “much faster” we’d hate to think how slow those security guys were before.

Need we go on? Maybe the nuclear industry should hire Greenpeace as security consultants because whoever’s been responsible for protecting nuclear reactors up until now clearly isn’t earning their money. Nuclear reactors, wherever they are in the world, are vulnerable. They always have been and remain so right now.

French Industry Minister Eric Besson said in response to our latest action this week: “We will have to take measures to ensure it doesn't happen again”. Emergency meetings are apparently being held. “There will be lessons learned,” says Dominique Miniere. They’ve certainly failed to learn the lessons of previous infiltrations so we can only hope that they will this time. The motives of the next people to walk into a nuclear power might not be as pure as Greenpeace’s. The world is now watching.

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(Unregistered) Dave Rauschkolb
says:

One day in the future when there is a war in some country that has nuclear reactors the power will go off and the reactors will melt down. The likelih...

One day in the future when there is a war in some country that has nuclear reactors the power will go off and the reactors will melt down. The likelihood of these reactors being contained or repaired quickly is very low considering the unpredictability of war. This will create "uninhabitable zones" on the earth. I've been talking about this for some time yet no one seems to be even thinking about this eventuality. If another world war happens there will be many "uninhabitable zones." This is reason alone to abandon Nuclear Power for good.

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(Unregistered) oddington
says:

How can anybody believe that nuclear energy is,cheap and clean after what the whole World has been able to see with there own eyes what happened in Fu...

How can anybody believe that nuclear energy is,cheap and clean after what the whole World has been able to see with there own eyes what happened in Fujishima,and is still happening,contaminated water now escaping into the Ocean,the drinking water is contaminated and so are their Paddy fields,effecting the Japanese staple diet!! France has so many Nuclear Plants it is a potential danger for the whole of Europe!! Friction is energy,right from prehistoric times man found rubbing two pieces of wood together he could produce fire,that one small action changed a whole way of life on Earth.But today we have advanced in some ways,we have a Wave-hub,and miles of coastline for it to work,we have Wind turbines with miles of windy areas for them to work too,we have millions of cars that use roads and cause two sorts of friction,Wind tunnels and Wheel friction that is not used at all,we could even produce energy with the soles of our shoes enough to make a torch work,but none of these things are even considered,because they obviously don`t make enough money for the big multi-national companies!! We need to change our whole way of thinking about energy,learn new things,to make a new and self sufficient World.The ilumination used in most cities at night is far beyond the necessary,can be seen from satellite from hundreds of miles in outer space,for goodness sake why do we have to waste so much energy!!This Planet is in Crisis in more ways than the economical one,and just needs ordinary,sensibilised people to take care of it.People like you,me and Green peace who will fight for our Planet and a better life for our children and grandchildren!!

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(Unregistered) First name
says:

I think if anyone actually sat down and took the time to research nuclear power and the new technology associated with it, it wouldn't be so worri...

I think if anyone actually sat down and took the time to research nuclear power and the new technology associated with it, it wouldn't be so worrisome. There is no denying that nuclear reactors as they exist today are vulnerable, but as much as we would all love to see the world run on sustainable energy, none of those mediums have proved efficient enough to completely sate the world's growing energy needs.

Even accounting for minor leakage, a safely operating nuclear power plant puts out less radiation over 50 years than burning coal. The only byproduct from a safely operating plant is clean water steam (therefore water is not being wasted, the wonders of the water cycle eh?) and depleted uranium cores. Depleted uranium can be used in the creation of trim weights in aircraft, as well as bullets and tank armor. Although the latter don't agree with your agenda, the waste products can definitely be utilized. Radioactive waste also diminishes over time, as the material breaks apart, so what can't be used could be stored safely and securely.

Is nuclear power ideal? Not at all, but neither is expecting to run the entire planet on sources of energy that we can't make efficient enough. Its about a little more than raking money from consumers in the energy business, coal and nuclear power continue to be used because they give the most bang for the buck. I want the world to run in a sustainable way too, but we can't do that when our sustainable options can't be implemented on a national scale and are currently not efficient enough to give us the massive amount of energy we require.

I'm all for sustainability, but 100% sustainability isn't obtainable at this very moment. As technology advances, we may find a way to make our sustainable energy efficient enough, or we could even discover a new and ideal form of energy. As far as the foreseeable future holds though, we are going to have to rely on a mix of sustainable sources of energy and the energy source you oppose so much. We may not have to use them forever, but as I see it, nuclear energy is not a bad decision for the time being.

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(Unregistered) DaitheSci
says:

Hi Dave Rauschkolb,

"... nuclear reactors the power will go off and the reactors will melt down."

All the more reason to move to the new generation of Nuclear Power plants. Read the article and check up on Fast Spectrum and liquid sodium reactors. They *cannot* melt-down for one very simple reason: the core is already molten.

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(Unregistered) Consider
says:

Safe, renewable energy is available and efficient enough to power the planet. Why take any risk on nuclear? It is an unnecessary danger with the poten...

Safe, renewable energy is available and efficient enough to power the planet. Why take any risk on nuclear? It is an unnecessary danger with the potential to do unprecedented damage to life on earth. It is very likely that high levels of radiation caused the great extinction events of the earth's history. We do not need to help it. Let us leave nuclear in the stars, where it belongs.

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(Unregistered) BalthoTheBarbarian
says:

I think nuclear is important for the earth. It brings us much energy ans it's perfectly safe! Japan had this accident, because they live on a dang...

I think nuclear is important for the earth. It brings us much energy ans it's perfectly safe! Japan had this accident, because they live on a dangerous island. with earthquakes, tsunamis and godzilla. No wonder why Fukushima exploded!